I got a late Christmas present from Pioneer Drama Service yesterday afternoon when I opened my front door to see a package of scripts for my new play, I Wish…, sitting on the porch. I guess this means it’s officially available for licensing! This is my first foray into writing theater for young audiences, and it was a lot of fun to write! I can’t wait to see photos of productions start popping up on the internet!

I Wish… script

You can read a sample of the script right here on my blog by clicking on the Script Previews tab.

Synopsis: You’ve heard the story of Cinderella, but did you know that her sassy Godmother also has a tale to tell? When a hardworking fairy named Carol stops by her goddaughter’s cottage to borrow a cup of flour, a simple visit quickly turns into a complicated evening of chaos. Carol’s plans to bake a batch of brownies are set into a tailspin when a bunch of silly strangers (including a door-to-door salesman, a repairwoman, a pizza delivery boy, and more) show up, hoping to have their wishes granted by the Fairy Godmother. Making a wish come true should be easy with magic on her side, but an accidental encounter with a fire-breathing dragon renders Carol’s wand useless. To top it off, a bunch of mischievous mice are on the loose. Will we ever make it to happily ever after? And will the brownie batter ever find its way into the oven? Audiences and performers will have a ball with this delightful fairy’s tale.

Break a leg to the students at Colts Neck High School in Colts Neck, NJ, as they present my play, A Family Reunion to Die For, November 19 to 21! Wait…NJ?!? Haven’t seen a production in my home state in awhile! Maybe I’ll pop on over and catch a show!

In case this post’s title wasn’t a clue, my latest play has received a publishing contract!

Wahoo!

Yeah!

Jump up and down!

This one is extra special to me because it’s the first play I’ve written solo. All of my other plays were collaborations with my brother, Matt, (and sometimes a few of my students). I had an idea for a fairytale spinning in my head for awhile and figured I’d flesh it out. So I did. (And I mentioned it in a previous post.)

The play is called I Wish, and it’s a story for young audiences centered around Cinderella’s godmother – a sassy gal named Carol. It’s a fairy’s fairytale, if you will. I set the play on the evening of the royal ball. Cinderella wants to attend, of course, but needs to finish cleaning her cottage or her stepmother will not be happy. Carol offers to get the job done…and hilarious hijinks ensue. Apparently, Cinderella wasn’t the only one to have an adventure that night. (And spoiler alert: she wasn’t the only one to have a romance, either.)

Here’s a fun little story I never got around to posting about when it happened back at the end of January…

The Phantom of the Opera was set to celebrate its 27th anniversary on Broadway on January 26, with a big celebration after the show for the cast, crew, and staff, but with the impending Winter Storm Juno, all Broadway performances were canceled for the evening. Well, the blizzard (which was supposed to be the worst NJ and NYC had ever seen in this lifetime) fooled everyone and dropped only a few inches of snow on the city. Regardless, Phantom’s anniversary performance had been canceled.

A friend of mine runs the social networking accounts for Phantom, and he needed to photograph the (postponed) anniversary party after the show that Saturday evening. Since he’d now have to work on a weekend, his company arranged for him to receive two comp tickets to the performance rather than just show up at curtain call.

And that’s how I ended up sitting right under the glorious chandelier that falls onto the stage.

I had seen the show twice before from the nosebleeds of the balcony on high school field trips, but the seats we had for this anniversary performance were center orchestra, and the show is a lot more fun when you can actually see the stage without binoculars.

After the performance, we were ushered backstage where my friend photographed Norm Lewis and the other performers in costume. Then, everyone got out of costume and makeup, and dozens of pizzas were stacked onto tables stretching across the stage for a big party. There were speeches and toasts, and I ate a few slices of pizza (or maybe more than a few). At one point, I was chatting with a girl I thought must be someone’s daughter only to learn that she was the actress who plays Christine during the matinee performances…and then I cried in the corner because I realized I’m older than the star of the show.

Onstage at the Majestic Theatre in front of the infamous chandelier. (No, I didn’t airbrush the photo; that’s how youthful I look under stage lights.)

When the party was over, my friend and I exited the theatre by walking off the stage and through the house while the rest of the partygoers (cast, crew, and staff) exited through the stage door. We walked from the lobby into the foyer, and realized that the doors leading to the street were dead-bolted shut, as it was now several hours after the performance had ended. When we turned around to go back into the theatre, we found that the doors leading to the lobby had locked behind us.

I thought surely we must be on camera and some security guard would come find us and set us free. But we continued to wait. And wait. And wait.

Literally, moments before we were about to call the police, a security guard for the theatre came strolling down the sidewalk. He looked just as surprised to see us trapped in the foyer as we felt to be trapped.

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Have you ever wondered what goes into writing a play? Here, I blog about my adventures as a professional playwright - the trials and tribulations of writers block, the rewards and frustrations of collaborating with other creative professionals, the daunting search for producers and publishing contracts and more.